The payment includes $108,204.90 in departure pay, as well as $159,719.00 in a “transitional allocation.”

Applebaum, as a result of his brief interim stint at city hall, holds the distinction of having been Montreal’s first anglophone mayor in 100 years.

He now faces 14 charges including fraud, conspiracy, breach of trust, and corruption in municipal affairs.

He can keep this sum even if he’s found guilty of the criminal charges against him

The main opposition party at city hall says the severance rules need to change.

Vision Montreal’s Louise Harel intends to bring a motion to the next municipal council meeting on Aug. 26, requesting that the rules be altered so that severance packages can be withheld if an elected official’s departure is deemed invalid.

“(Applebaum) can keep this sum even if he’s found guilty of the criminal charges against him,” Harel said in a statement.

“This kind of thing deepens public cynicism and needs to be corrected.”

She said similar changes are being considered at the provincial level under a bill before the legislature, and urged that the principle be extended to municipal politics.